Crowning a new Mutya ng City of Mati ~ D' Durian Daily

Ronnabelle Najial-3rd runner-up, Janine Lovely Grace Antipolo-2nd runner-up, Mutya ng City of Mati Arriane Shane Buenviaje, Dale Mae Juarez -1st runner-up and Analyn Gonzales-4th runner-up.

The coronation night of the new Mutya ng Mati was like watching the Miss Universe beauty pageant. It had the components of a great show— good script, costume and production design, engaging hosts, and most importantly, it ran at a very good time frame that veered from the lengthy presentation that has become a formula of a great deal of our local beauty contests. This pageant was one well-produced spectacle with a program flowing smoothly from opening number to finale.

The 20 candidates presented after the opening number

Doing a very professional job in hosting were the good-looking pair of Davao City television personality Mikey Aportadera and Miss Cebu 2013 first runner-up, Christine Llamada, who hails from Mati. Both made for excellent anchors in keeping all the candidates at ease on stage and engaging the audience for a seamless segments transition.

Excellent anchors, Mikey Aportadera & Christine Llamada, kept all the candidates at ease on stage, most especially during the Q&A portion.

Twenty candidates vied for this year’s title. Following the parade of candidates, video presentation of the pre-pageant activities where the initial judging transpired and the handing of the special awards, the list was narrowed down to ten.

The Top 10 was immediately announced after the opening number.

Arriane Shane Buenviaje bagged three of the special awards, the Best in Creative Costume, Best in Swimsuit, and Best in Talent, Best in Gown went to Dale Mae Juarez, Janine Antipolo is Miss Photogenic and Sheena Peralta was named Miss Congeniality.

Arriane Shane Buenviaje bagged three of the special awards which included the Best in Creative Costume

Scoring on a clean slate, the board of judges chaired by Jackie Garcia-Dizon with the panel composed of Bb. Pilipinas-Universe 2014, MJ Lastimosa, former ABS-CBN talent, artist and producer, Chris Peralta, beauty consultant and stylist Lloyd Salazar, and Jon Nuñez, founder and owner of GLAM Modeling House, selected the top 5 candidates.

The panel of judges

The Question & Answer portion carries a big chunk in a beauty pageant’s scoring system. This will put the candidate’s intelligence on the forefront and display how a beauty handles pressure in the most stressful segment of the contest. However, with the five charming Mati beauties answering intelligently to the questions directed to them, the judges had difficult task in appointing a winner.

The Top 5 contenders for the title.

..and then there were two.

After deliberation and score tallying, the early crowd favorite emerged as the winner. Arriane Shane Buenviaje is the new Mutya ng City of Mati. Extending the honor of crowning the new titleholder was beauty queen MJ Lastimosa and the honorable Mayor of Mati, Carlo Rabat. Arriane’s court is held by 1st runner-up Dale Mae Juarez, 2nd runner-up Janine Lovely Grace Antipolo, 3rd runner-up Ronnabelle Najial, and 4th runner-up Analyn Gonzales.

Reigning Bb. Pilipinas-Universe MJ Lastimosa crowning the new Mutya ng City of Mati, Arriane Shane Buenviaje.

Mati’s Cultural Center was the venue for this year’s search for the new Miss Mati, the culminating event of the weeklong celebration of the Citihood and Pujada Bay Fest 2014. The crowd control was excellent admitting only to seating capacity to avoid overcrowding, safety came first for this event. Perhaps a bigger venue would be in order to accommodate more of the supporters of this activity next year.